Metallic photos of the sun by renowned photographer Greg Piepol bring together the best of art and science. Buy one or a whole set. They make a stellar gift. |
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CME
IMPACT: As expected, a CME hit
Earth's magnetic field on Jan. 24th at approximately
1500 UT (10 am EST). A G1-class
geomagnetic storm is in
progress now, producing bright
auroras
around the Arctic Circle. Sky watchers in Canada,
Alaska, and states along the US-Canadian border
should be alert for Northern Lights after nightfall.
Tip: The hours around local midnight are often best
for aurora sightings. Aurora
alerts: text,
voice.
In Lofoton, Norway, the CME's arrival
produced a surge in ground currents outside the
laboratory of Rob Stammes:
"The expected CME arrived and
showed up on my instruments at 15.10 UTC--a fantastic
shockwave followed by a magnetic storm," says
Stammes. "This could be a happy day for many
aurora watchers."
Indeed, the first auroras, post-impact,
have been sighted in northern Europe. Antti Pietikäinen
sends this picture from Muonio in the Finnish Lapland:
"We went out with snowmobiles
to wait for the incoming storm," says Pietikäinen.
"The show started slowly, but after 15mins
the landscape was green! This was the first time
for Thomas (pictured above) to see the Northern
Lights. He was very happy."
more images: from
Hinrich Baesemann of Tromso, Norway; from
Ashton Seth Reimer of Longyearbyen, Norway;
from
Gordon Watt of Alford, Aberdeenshire, UK ; from
Antti Pietikäinen of Muonio, Lapland, Finland;
from
B.Art Braafhart of Salla, Finnish-Lapland; from
Pickles of Karlstad, Sweden; from
Jens Buchmann of Kiruna, Sweden; from
Alister Chapman of Karasjok, Norway;
January
2012 Aurora Gallery
[previous Januaries: 2010,
2009,
2008,
2007, 2005,
2004]
Comet
Lovejoy Gallery
[previous comets: McNaught,
Holmes,
Lulin,
Tuttle,
Ikeya-Zhang]
Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (
PHAs)
are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that
can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the
known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet,
although astronomers are finding
new
ones all the time.
On
January 24, 2012 there were 1272
potentially hazardous asteroids.
Notes: LD means
"Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance
between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256
AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on
the date of closest approach.
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The
official U.S. government space weather bureau |
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The
first place to look for information about sundogs,
pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. |
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Researchers
call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO
is the most advanced solar observatory ever. |
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3D
views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial
Relations Observatory |
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Realtime
and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. |
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from
the NOAA Space Environment Center |
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the
underlying science of space weather |
